The Georgia National Guard was working hard this morning in an attempt to rescue motorists trapped all night in their cars on Atlanta’s ice and snow-covered freeways.
The cause of this craziness? Two inches of snow, which caused massive gridlock and forced many drivers to abandon their cars outright and left children to camp out in their schools.
Although the city was ill prepared for the storm, Waffle House and similar Georgia institutions were there to save the day. The beloved chain stayed open through the disaster, and those stranded on roads were no doubt comforted by the knowledge that Waffle House (and IHOP) were open and near whichever highway exit they were closest to.
Atlanta ain’t got salt or shovels, apparently….i bet waffle house still open tho. Lol
— Pyrat Slick (@SlickB_) January 29, 2014
Photo: @tastefullynasty
We called the Howell Mill Rd and Buckhead locations of Waffle House this morning at 10am, and they were still completely slammed.
What you might not realize is Waffle House has such a long-standing reputation for staying open during natural disasters. FEMA uses a “Waffle House Index,” or an informal measure of disaster severity ranging from red (restaurant is closed) to yellow (open, but with a limited menu) to green (restaurant is open).
In other news, some good citizens of Atlanta even handed out food to motorists.
Good Samaritan hands out sandwiches to stranded motorists in ATL. Check out Resource list: http://t.co/rxfjpyvWiO pic.twitter.com/1gJOijw07F — AJC (@ajc) January 29, 2014
our neighborhood is gathering up food and water to walk up to stranded motorists on 285 #atl #SnowJam2014 — jr schmitt (@cloudspark) January 29, 2014
What can we learn from all this? Although you may not always be able to count on the preparedness of your city, you can always count on your Waffle House.
